Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Lower occurrence of atopic dermatitis in children thanks to farm animals and cats

02.12.2010

Children whose mothers are exposed to farm animals and cats are better protected against atopic dermatitis and are less likely to develop this painful inflammation of the skin in their first two years of life. A group of researchers from the University of Zurich and other universities have published evidence supporting this theory in the «Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.»

Atopic dermatitis (also known as atopic eczema) is a chronic and extremely painful inflammation of the skin that frequently occurs in early childhood, generally already in infancy. Up to 20 percent of all children in industrialized countries are affected, making it one of the most common childhood skin diseases.

The need to better understand this disease is all the greater considering the intense suffering it causes in small children. Atopic dermatitis is, however, an allergic condition and all allergic reactions result from complex interactions of genetic and environmental factors on the immune system. Earlier research has already indicated that allergies are less common in children who grow up on farms and whose mothers live on farms during their pregnancy. Exposure to farm animals and bacteria frequently found in farms as well as drinking milk from the dairy offer the immune system protection. However, proof of this protective effect in connection with atopic dermatitis has remained elusive.

Now, the «Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology» (JACI) has published a study by Caroline Roduit from the research team of Roger Lauener, University of Zurich. The study analyzes how prenatal environmental factors and genetic mechanisms influence the development of atopic dermatitis during the first two years of life. The authors of the study examined children in rural areas of five European countries: Austria, Finland, France, Germany and Switzerland. Of the 1,063 children taking part in the study, 508 were from families that lived on farms, 555 were not farm children.

The researchers were able to demonstrate that women who spend their pregnancy in the proximity of farm animals and cats have children with a reduced risk of developing atopic dermatitis in their first two years of life. The research team also identified two genes in these children that are of vital importance for innate immunity and was able to link the expression of these genes to a lower likelihood of a doctor diagnosis of an allergic condition. The findings of the study are not only significant in the face of the frequency of the disease and the suffering it causes: They also support the theory that gene-environment interaction with the developing immune system influences the development of atopic dermatitis in young children.

Die letzten 5 Focus-News des innovations-reports im Überblick:

Physicists of the University of Würzburg have made an astonishing discovery in a specific type of topological insulators. The effect is due to the structure of the materials used. The researchers have now published their work in the journal Science.

Topological insulators are currently the hot topic in physics according to the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Only a few weeks ago, their importance was...

In recent years, lasers with ultrashort pulses (USP) down to the femtosecond range have become established on an industrial scale. They could advance some applications with the much-lauded “cold ablation” – if that meant they would then achieve more throughput. A new generation of process engineering that will address this issue in particular will be discussed at the “4th UKP Workshop – Ultrafast Laser Technology” in April 2017.

Even back in the 1990s, scientists were comparing materials processing with nanosecond, picosecond and femtosesecond pulses. The result was surprising:...

A multi-institutional research collaboration has created a novel approach for fabricating three-dimensional micro-optics through the shape-defined formation of porous silicon (PSi), with broad impacts in integrated optoelectronics, imaging, and photovoltaics.

Working with colleagues at Stanford and The Dow Chemical Company, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign fabricated 3-D birefringent...

In experiments with magnetic atoms conducted at extremely low temperatures, scientists have demonstrated a unique phase of matter: The atoms form a new type of quantum liquid or quantum droplet state. These so called quantum droplets may preserve their form in absence of external confinement because of quantum effects. The joint team of experimental physicists from Innsbruck and theoretical physicists from Hannover report on their findings in the journal Physical Review X.

“Our Quantum droplets are in the gas phase but they still drop like a rock,” explains experimental physicist Francesca Ferlaino when talking about the...